The 2010 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees were just announced. For players, Dino Ciccarelli joins first-time female nominees Cammi Granato and Angela James. Jimmy Devellano and Daryl “Doc” Seaman were elected as “builders.” I conducted a survey of the PHT Staff (myself, Brandon and Joe) plus 10 hockey bloggers and the inductees we chose were very, very different.

While the real-life committee chose Ciccarelli, Granato, James, Devellano and Seaman, we chose Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Adam Oates and Ciccarelli. That’s a pretty stunning disparity, and frankly, I think our group is a better depiction of hockey royalty than the ones who made it in reality.

Nieuwendyk received 10 out of 13 possible votes in our poll … did the committee just decide that he wasn’t first-ballot material? Adam Oates is the leading scorer among eligible players who aren’t already in the Hall of Fame and Joe Yerdon will surely have a conniption that he was snubbed once again. Doug Gilmour and others also have plenty to complain about.

It’s great to see women inducted, but it would have felt better if the group looked something like Nieuwendyk, Ciccarelli, Granato and James instead. I’d like to see the voting results or at least hear about some of the reasoning; dare I ask if politics decided it rather than on-ice achievements?

(Besides, if voters wanted to tug on heart strings … have they heard of the name Pat Burns? He’s plenty deserving of a nod and his health problems justify “rushing” him in. Oh well, I’ll move on.)

That being said, I thought I’d give a quick summary of each inductee’s contributions to the sport.

Ciccarelli – A great selection considering his stout combination of points (1200) and penalty minutes (1425). Many speculate he would have made the HHOF sooner if he didn’t have some off-ice issues.

Granato – Cammi Granato was – and in many ways still is – the face of women’s hockey in the United States. She won a gold medal in 1998 and a silver medal in 2002. She also appeared in nearly every international tournament U.S. women’s hockey appeared in.

James – Called the “Wayne Gretzky of women’s hockey.” She scored 34 points in 20 games in four women’s world championships and found herself inducted into a litany of different athletic Hall of Fames.

Devellano – I think these three paragraphs from his Detroit Red Wings biography capture Devellano’s well-earned place in the HHOF. (I cut out some of the extraneous information, though.)

Devellano was one of the first NHL general managers to assemble a strong European scouting staff back in 1984, a progressive move that has produced several Red Wing standouts including Russians Sergei Fedorov, Slava Kozlov, Vladimir Konstantinov and Pavel Datsyuk, and Swedes Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen and Niklas Kronwall.

Through the course of Devellano’s tenure with the Red Wings, Detroit has participated in ten conference finals and six Stanley Cup finals, collected six Presidents’ Trophies, eight regular-season Western Conference championships and 15 division championships.

Devellano is the proud owner of 14 championship rings. His impressive collection includes: seven Stanley Cup rings (N.Y. Islanders 1980, 1981, 1982 and Detroit 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008), three Calder Cup championship rings in the American Hockey League with Adirondack (1986, 1989 and 1992), two Adams Cup championship rings in the Central Hockey League (Fort Worth 1978 and Indianapolis 1982), and one Riley Cup championship ring in the East Coast Hockey League (Toledo 1994). Devellano also added a Major League Baseball American League championship ring with the Detroit Tigers in 2006.

Now, that is a Hall of Fame resume. Wow.

Seaman: Sadly, this is a posthumous honor for “Doc” since he died from prostate cancer in 2009. He was part of the original group who bought the Calgary Flames and was one of their owners when the team won a Stanley Cup in 1989.

I inderstand a special category for womens hockey although it is still in it’s infancy. the committee missed the boat on Pat Burns Ciccarelli is deserving. I just am thankful that they did not put that turd Lindros in.

Area 51 - Jun 22, 2010 at 8:36 PM

Tara Mounsey was the best player in her 1st Olympics. And on a bad knee.

chris - Jun 23, 2010 at 12:23 PM

tara mounsey could suck a serious dick bro…..damn she loved it in college…..

Anonymous - Jun 23, 2010 at 1:05 PM

Ciccarelli was, is, and will always be a goon. Not deserving… Cammi truely deserves to be in this class. Should have included Dave Andreychuk.